Putin and Russia are losing the least desperate move is to accept a truce

Vladimir Putin is losing his brutal war on Ukraine; what will make him accept a truce? Kyiv’s “Operation Vivaldi” keeps pounding away, driving Russian forces back and liberating villages in the Donetsk region, erasing most of Moscow’s (meager) gains of the last year.The offensive has so far liberated nearly 68 square miles of territory from Russian forces, taken 250-plus Russian prisoners and inflicted 2,000 casualties.Even his hold on Crimea is weaker than it was.Meanwhile, Ukraine’s drones are striking deep inside Russia and occupied Crimea, disrupting supplies to the front and slamming Putin’s oil refineries.With his battlefield strategy a total bust, he’s falling back on terror — targeting airstrikes on innocents far behind the lines and bombing energy infrastructure to maximize civilian suffering this winter — in a desperate hope that it finally breaks Kyiv’s will (which he’s been expecting for nearly five years now).He’s also hoping elections in Western Europe end those nations’ support for Kyiv, but so far his war has only united Europe against him, with defense outlays growing and NATO expanded to his doorstep — when his invasion was supposed to push the alliance further away, if not break it entirely.If he keeps it up, Lithuania will wind up hosting a US military base, with nuclear deployment; does he want one in Finland, too?After the November elections, President Donald Trump can be more aggressive in pushing Putin to the table, including by exercising the powers granted him under the bipartisan Lindsey Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act.Subscribe to our daily Post Opinion newsletter! Please provide a valid email.

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In the meantime, the renewed flow of oil and gas out of the Middle East will soon drive down global prices, further cutting into the Kremlin’s energy revenues.The long...